Priest of Rymrgand build

[Loog]

I'm about to start a new playthrough and it will be as a priest of Rymrgand focused on buffing and frost damage. However, I'm not to sure on how to build this character. 

Regarding the abilities I don't have many questions, it's pretty straightforward. I'm not too sure regarding the attributes. I will probably min-max with high Perception / Intellect / Might, medium Dexterity but I'm not sure if the remaining points should be use for constitution or resolve. I believe that AI will target the party member with the lowest deflection / armor so I would say deflection to avoid that but I'm not too sure.

It's the gearing part where I'm a bit lost. 
 

For the weapons if was thinking:

• Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff but that's only +1 PL. The modal is nice but won't help against ranged enemies...
• Sun & Moon. Only good half the time
• Marux Amanth: a bit unreliable + double casting buff is not that useful.
• Griffin's Blade: decent stat stick I guess?

+ if I go with a 1H weapon I'm not sure which small shield would be best to use. Xoti Lantern won't be an option since she'll be in my party using it.

 

Regarding the armor there's a few options:

• Aloth's Armor for more AoE. Bit squishy though
• Miscreant's Leathers. Great for recovery time, still squishy...
• Fleshmender. Leather armor (so only 20% recovery) but with added survivability
• Casità Samelia's Legacy. A bit slow but great to boost deflection. 
• Devil of Caroc Breastplate. Better armor than leather while still maintaining decent recovery time...

 

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

 

edit: Party will be Eder Swashbuckler, Pallegina Crusader, Maia Scout, Xoti SC Priest + MC

 

Edited April 28, 2023 by Loog

[thelee]

4 hours ago, Loog said:

• Marux Amanth: a bit unreliable + double casting buff is not that useful.

counter-point: double-casting on priest of rymrgand would be great. just don't expect it to proc very much (maybe once per late game fight) to set your expectations appropriately.

griffin's blade is a pretty solid choice though.

 

4 hours ago, Loog said:

+ if I go with a 1H weapon I'm not sure which small shield would be best to use. Xoti Lantern won't be an option since she'll be in my party using it.

why not dual wield stat sticks? griffin's blade + marux amanth, or griffin's blade + sun & moon, or griffin's blade + keeper of the flame (for the acc bonus aura), etc.

 

4 hours ago, Loog said:

Regarding the armor there's a few options:

fleshmender is solid choice (especially if you can make use of the weapon set or quick item slot upgrades), but later on in the game even on PotD i feel like it might be overkill in terms of defense for a priest, whom i'm assuming you're going to be mostly keeping away from the front lines. might want to take a page from vatnir and stealborrow his high harbinger's robe - very fast, option to go even faster, would help optimize your stats a bit since you're not investing a lot in dex.

i'd also say that effigy's husk is available pretty early on, and despite being cloth because it's superb at such an early point it punches above its weight in terms of defense especially with the weird +3 slash AR, and i've actually gotten tons of value from the healing penalty aura that gets triggered, as well as being able to upgrade to ignore perception afflictions (blinding can be killer for a caster, especially a support-adjacent one; huge recovery penalty and ranged penalty can make it really hard/impossible to heal/protect allies in time, on top of making your offensive casting way less effective).

Edited April 28, 2023 by thelee

[Shai Hulud]

Thelee is on point as usual.

If you're mostly casting use griffins blade + sun and moon or griffins blade + magrans favor axe, or my favorite combo, griffins blade + squids grasp, though to really get the benefit of squid you need to be in the thick of things to proc attempted parley. 

Effigys husk is amazing, though as priest of rymrygand I think you're honor bound to kill vatnir for being a phony and wear his high harbinger robes

Which incidentally are the best robes for damage + action speed. You can get them mid game as soon as you can take on the messenger. I usually sail by to grab them around l14. Shouldn't be too hard with two priests given all that fire damage.

Speaking of i'd consider running xoti as a monk or at least transcendent, also pallegina as herald is probably better suited but you can finish the game with any party so its a matter of preference mostly.

You don't need con or resolve unless in the thick of things. Maybe like 8 CON max. 3 RES. Int -> per -> mig > dex > con -> res

Max int/per, high might, over 10 dex, under 10 con, dump res

Other nice gear, acina's tricorn acc buff applies to spells for some reason so it is a great hat for casters. Sky dragon wurm for pet imo. Charm of bones or strand of favor for neck. Gauntlets of accuracy. Sandals of ahu taka. Kuarus ring. Gift bearer cloth.

Late game you might want least unstable coil and weyc gear, at least if you aren't doing a no rest run. Even in a no rest run id want it for megaboss fights. Can get Brilliant on yourself from storm of holy fire + coil, then salvation of time now and then and you've infinite spells.

A cipher would also be a fantastic add to the party for ancestor's memory (among other things) which you can extend with SOT. Ydwin as pure cipher instead of xoti or Maia would work, she can do a lot of similar things priests can and some that priest cannot.

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Shai Hulud

[Loog]

Thank you both for the very detailed answers, helps a lot!

 

One thing I'm a bit worried about is the low deflection when running low RES & no shield. My last playthrough was with an Ancient / Helwalker and he was constantly focused down, mainly by ranged attackers. This made some encounters (like boarding ships) really annoying. How could I prevent this on this char?

 

Regarding Xoti, I wanted to try double priest this time so buff would be up twice as fast and they would  also have some time to cast offensive spells (fire for Xoti, frost for MC). In previous run when running only one priest, he didn't had time to use offensive spells since he was to busy buffing / healing. By the time all buffs / defense were up and the team health stabilize the encounter was almost won so offensive spells didn't really matter. But maybe I am playing priest wrong ?

 

[thelee]

2 hours ago, Loog said:

One thing I'm a bit worried about is the low deflection when running low RES & no shield.

If you have a spare weapon slot, you could consider having one that has a large shield and pick up large shield proficiency. The accuracy penalty is murder, but while you’re in that mode you can limit yourself to support spells and you won’t be negatively impacted at all. The massive deflection bonus and damage reduction offered by large shield + modal will protect you against ranged damage.

ultimately though, being on point with engagement and distracting ranged attackers with alternative targets (an item-based summon attacking them in melee gets their attention real fast for cheap) can obviate the need for worrying *too* much about defense.

[Loog]

Good idea, I'll try Cadhu Scalth + dagger at the beginning of hard encounters and will switch to other weapons once the buffing and summoning is done. Thanks!

[Shai Hulud]

12 hours ago, Loog said:

Thank you both for the very detailed answers, helps a lot!

 

One thing I'm a bit worried about is the low deflection when running low RES & no shield. My last playthrough was with an Ancient / Helwalker and he was constantly focused down, mainly by ranged attackers. This made some encounters (like boarding ships) really annoying. How could I prevent this on this char?

Normally low deflection is not a problem if you position your characters appropriately. Give your MC farcasting and most enemies won't be able to reach him without moving so they'll target someone else. It's especially not a problem since you have barring death's door.

Ship combat and ambushes are kind of the exception because you can't position your party how you want, and are stuck with however it loads. Really ship combat is not well-designed...the "hard" encounters are just ten guys with arquebus firing at you from the other ship. You can skip it entirely and not really miss anything besides possibly the club kapana taga might require boarding (or it might not, sinking the ship sometimes gives the loot). But yeah in ship combat you could just go into turtle mode with bronlar's phalanx or some other large shield with huge deflection bonuses, can even use the wall modal which massively reduces ranged damage. You won't be able to move, but if you have farcasting it is probably fine, possibly even if you don't. If you need to move just toggle it off/on. Normally I'd use a movement ability like escape but priest of rymrgand doesn't have one.

But you don't have to dual wield the advantages are not that large compared to sword and shield, and there are plenty of good shields. 

Another possibility is do sword and shield with akola's apex ward large shield, which gives +10 accuracy when below 50% health, offsetting the accuracy penalty by +2. You'd want more CON so you can fight at lower health (or have barring death's door + salvation of time), but it works pretty well with blood mages, not as sure with priests, may be harder to stay bloodied. 

12 hours ago, Loog said:

 

Regarding Xoti, I wanted to try double priest this time so buff would be up twice as fast and they would  also have some time to cast offensive spells (fire for Xoti, frost for MC). In previous run when running only one priest, he didn't had time to use offensive spells since he was to busy buffing / healing. By the time all buffs / defense were up and the team health stabilize the encounter was almost won so offensive spells didn't really matter. But maybe I am playing priest wrong ?

 

I think this situation calls for...blade cascade (from scordeo's edge)! It's kind of annoying to proc but if you do, one salvation of time and you can cast like a maniac. Pretty late game item though.

Double priest is fine, particularly if one is more focused on damage and the other buffs I guess, though personally I rarely do Xoti as pure priest because monks are so good and contemplatives are best of both worlds. 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Shai Hulud

[NotDumbEnough]

On 4/29/2023 at 7:38 AM, Loog said:

One thing I'm a bit worried about is the low deflection when running low RES & no shield. My last playthrough was with an Ancient / Helwalker and he was constantly focused down, mainly by ranged attackers. This made some encounters (like boarding ships) really annoying. How could I prevent this on this char?

This is cheesy, but priests are the most tolerant class for skimping on defenses. None of your spells break stealth if they do not hit an enemy, i.e. you can cast all of your party buffs from stealth. Pump stealth and simply don't take offensive actions until you're buffed up. Also, you skip 85% of your recovery time while casting from stealth. Generally speaking I always pump stealth on Xoti and she can go through a whole fight without revealing herself.

 

I don't think any other class can do their job entirely from stealth like this. I guess you could do a sneaky Beckoner but you generally want chanters to do some fighting while waiting for phrases to regenerate. Other spellcasters don't have that many support spells.

[Shai Hulud]

1 hour ago, NotDumbEnough said:

This is cheesy, but priests are the most tolerant class for skimping on defenses. None of your spells break stealth if they do not hit an enemy, i.e. you can cast all of your party buffs from stealth. Pump stealth and simply don't take offensive actions until you're buffed up. Also, you skip 85% of your recovery time while casting from stealth. Generally speaking I always pump stealth on Xoti and she can go through a whole fight without revealing herself.

 

I don't think any other class can do their job entirely from stealth like this. I guess you could do a sneaky Beckoner but you generally want chanters to do some fighting while waiting for phrases to regenerate. Other spellcasters don't have that many support spells.

Lot of builds can get by with zero defenses. Some because they don't need to expose themselves, others because they can deify themselves (e.g. priests), others because they have massive healing (e.g. brutes), etc. Low deflection is less of a problem in dumping RES than the hostile effect duration IMO, though priests have tools for that too with Suppress Affliction and Minor Intercession, especially with two priests if one gets stunned or something the other can save him. 

Also chanters are great from stealth IMO. Particularly troubadours with brisk recitation. They can send in summons including skeletons from many lives pass by, as well as casting buffs. Troubadour/psion is particularly great from stealth, as you can cast pain link on your summons and damage things that way in addition to the summons attacks and various cipher buffs. Can do most of the game this way actually, only major fight I can't do from stealth with this one is Dorudugan. I've even done fights with monks from stealth, just cast enduring dance and then dichotomous souls over and over. But yeah most builds are not ideal from stealth, with priests focused on buffing as long as they have farcasting they can probably stay stealthed whole battles, though I think OP wants this priest to be casting frost spells.

[Dalzar]

I would go with high dex and make use of those great battle axes with huge lashes. Add some inspirations like Minor avatar and champion's boon.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Dalzar